The Thick of It 3x07 (Reply)

While watching the last ten minutes of this episode one part of my brain was screaming ‘NOOOOOOOO’ while another part had ‘this is fucking brilliant!’ on endless repeat. That’s only happened three other times this year: Gaeta’s mutiny, Children of Earth Day Five and the last fifteen minutes of The Waters of Mars. And it strangely enough, it does not feel weird at all comparing a half-hour sitcom to those dramas. The Thick of It is the best show on television right now.

Rosencrantz and I were watching it anguishing for poor Malcolm, who is one of the most oddly sympathetic characters on television. Whether it’s because he’s a lot more complex a character than the average sitcom breakout characters are, or because Peter Capaldi is bloody amazing in the role week after week, or because we’ve been given evidence that Malcolm doesn’t have much besides his job, or maybe it’s because unlike the other spin doctors on the show, he is at least not a phony in that he doesn’t hide his foul temper behind a fake smile, maybe it’s because he’s the last of his kind, or maybe it’s just because he’s lovely to his assistant Sam, I don’t know.

Though while I sympathise greatly for Malcolm and I can’t wait for next week to see him summon the forces of darkness in aid of clawing his way back to the top, I’ve come around to thinking that Malcolm losing is right thing for the show. It’s a fantastic tragic character arc and it also works in so wonderfully with the big storyline of the season, of Labour losing power. After all, Malcolm said it himself, he’s the heart of the government so the destruction of Malcolm works as a lovely personal take on the big picture.

What I’m really curious about next episode is the role Nicola is going to play. Oh, Nicola. I don’t think she knows what to do or even what to feel about everything going on.

Other stuff:

The show had its first Doctor Who reference! What with the BSG reference, the Life on Mars reference and the countless Top Gear references, the lack of Doctor Who mention was becoming conspicuous.

Julius Nicolson’s a lord now! Bwah! I’m going to pretend that’s also what happened to Jamie, since the thought of Jamie hanging about the House of Lords calling everyone he meets an inbred Oxbridge twat amuses me.

Hate the new guy. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. But then, I’m supposed too.

Is Terri trying to deliberately sabotage DoSAC? She just seemed a bit more incompetent that usual this episode.

Have I mentioned recently how bloody amazing Peter Capaldi is? Coz I think I should mention it again just in case I hadn’t mentioned it before.